National scientific panel: Citrus greening research could improve

Herald-Tribune – April 11, 2018

LAKE ALFRED — Citrus growers in Florida and other states, as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, all recognize the bacterial disease citrus greening represents an existential threat, but they’re not yet playing on the same team.

That was one of the major conclusions of a new study from National Academy of Sciences on the first decade of fighting the fatal disease in Florida, the first citrus-producing state where it appeared.

“Despite commendable efforts of multiple agencies to coordinate funding and encourage appropriate inter-state, inter-agency and inter-disciplinary collaborations, the committee noted that decisions about research funding priorities and allocations occur largely within the domain of each agency,” according to the National Academy report released Tuesday.

The committee recommends that the Citrus Research and Development Foundation Inc. in Lake Alfred and other agencies “work together to create an overarching HLB research advisory panel to develop a fresh, systems approach to HLB research prioritization and the strategic distribution of resources for research leading to effective HLB management,” the report says. Greening is also known as HLB for its Chinese name, “huanglongbing.”

The prestigious scientific committee also concluded scientists will not likely achieve a breakthrough against the disease in the near future and that research needs to concentrate on short-term solutions to keep commercial groves economically viable until a permanent solution is discovered.

Also, since that permanent solution may involve some kind of genetic engineering to breed a new citrus tree resistant to infection, the industry needs to undertake a consumer-education campaign paving the way for acceptance of fruits and juices from such trees.

Greening first arose in Florida in the fall of 2005 and quickly became endemic throughout the state. The bacterial disease eventually kills citrus trees following a long period of decline marked by fewer and smaller fruit.

The Florida citrus industry established the Lake Alfred-based foundation in 2009 to review and finance research against the disease. It has spent $124 million on more than 400 research projects.

Harold Browning, until last month the foundation’s chief executive, characterized the report as a good, in-depth summary of the research so far and directions forward.

Browning agreed with recommendations on better coordination among the four state and federal agencies funding greening research, he said.

“Even though there’s some communication among these groups, each funding group comes up with its own priorities and goes with that,” Browning said. “We’re all giving money to the same people. If we’re all giving money, we could be overlapping either inadvertently or giving too much money for the same thing.”

Besides the Citrus Research Foundation, the other major funders of greening research are the California Citrus Research Board and two USDA agencies — the Specialty Crop Research Initiative and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s Multi-Agency Coordinating Research Group, he said.

Greening surfaced in California and Texas in 2012 but has not become endemic there yet.

In addition to funding coordination, the four groups can do a better job at coordinating research methods and reporting results, Browning and the National Academy agreed.

One problem is that university-based researchers delay a full release of their findings until they’re published in an academic journal, a significant milestone in the academic world, said Browning, a former University of Florida professor of entomology.

But publication often happens years after the conclusion of a multi-year research project, he noted, and that’s not conducive to finding quick solutions for greening.

“Science is supposed to be building blocks building on each other’s work, and that requires work be published in forms that can be shared,” Browning said. Instead of the traditional academic route, scientists might speed up finding a greening solution by collaborating in groups among scientists working in the same areas, said Browning, echoing the report.

“It’s a challenge to (the scientist’s) individual freedom, but individual freedom may not be the fastest way to get to a solution for HLB,” he said. Working groups “may be a way to get to the same point faster.”

While the scientific consensus appears to support breeding citrus trees resistant to greening infection or better able to fight off symptoms of decline, that tree could be a decade or more away from commercial availability. Florida growers especially need immediate help.

“Citrus growers, particularly in Florida, still need short-term solutions to sustain the industry while researchers continue to generate longer-term approaches for managing HLB,” the report states. “So support of basic and applied, short- and long-term research is needed.”

“Yes, we do not have a silver bullet cure at this point, but research and grower experimentation have put several tools in our toolbox to combat greening,” Sparks said. “We have the best citrus growers in the world, and they are adapting like they have with other challenges throughout the history of the industry. The good news is the tools and the grower ingenuity still exist.”

If genetic engineering becomes the answer to finding a greening resistant tree, the citrus industry needs to lay the groundwork for acceptance of the new technology among both growers and the public.

Much has been written about some consumers’ opposition to genetically engineered food, Browning said, but there’s also a significant segment of Florida citrus growers who are resisting genetically altered trees.

Any education effort needs to start with growers, he added. A consumer-education campaign would be premature until it appears a genetically modified tree is in the offing.

John Arthington, the interim chief operating officer at the Citrus Research Foundation, agreed with Browning.

“I wonder if it would be too early because we have nothing ready to roll out,” Arthington said of a genetically engineered tree. “Biotechnology related to gene editing needs to be part of our conversation with the public, but I think it would be improper to go forward to the public that genetics and gene editing will be the solution. There’s going to be growers concerned that that would be the focus of our efforts.”